A PRECIOUS NINTH-CENTURY BRONZE REDUCED TO A CARELESS CAPTION AT THE SPS MUSEUM, SRINAGAR

                                                                             

                                                                                   

                                                         (  Above Photos by the blogger, 2024 )

A PRECIOUS NINTH-CENTURY BRONZE REDUCED TO A CARELESS CAPTION AT THE SPS MUSEUM, SRINAGAR

 The Shri Pratap Singh (SPS) Museum in Srinagar preserves objects of immense artistic, historical and civilisational value. Yet the manner in which some of these treasures are labelled raises serious questions about the quality of interpretation offered to visitors. A particularly telling example is a ninth-century bronze sculpture of a female figure, whose display plate reads: “IMAGE OF A DANCING POSE LADY, 9TH CENTURY C.E. BRONZE”. The wording is grammatically defective, awkward and astonishingly inadequate for an object of such significance. The problem extends beyond incorrect English. The label fails to identify the sculpture as an example of Kashmir’s artistic heritage and offers no meaningful information about its historical setting, iconography, stylistic characteristics or cultural significance.

 WHAT DOES THE SCULPTURE ACTUALLY REPRESENT?

 The bronze depicts a female figure with both arms raised above her head, a gently curved torso, a pronounced waist and limbs arranged to suggest rhythmic movement. Her elaborate crown, necklaces, arm ornaments, girdle and carefully rendered garment demonstrate the sculptor’s attention to bodily form and decorative detail. The posture invites comparison with tribhanga, the classical Indian convention of threefold bodily flexion, rather than the more pronounced deflection generally associated with atibhanga. The figure may represent a nartaki, or female dancer, or an apsara, a celestial dancer associated with beauty and movement. Its precise identity, however, requires further iconographic investigation. 

A responsible museum label should acknowledge these possibilities, distinguish observation from interpretation, and provide visitors with a meaningful introduction to the object. Simply calling it an “image of a dancing pose lady” does none of these things.

THE HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT IS MISSING

The ninth century was an important period in Kashmir’s artistic and religious history. It falls within the Utpala period, following the principal phase of Kārkoṭa rule. The bronze should therefore be understood within the wider development of early medieval Kashmiri metal sculpture rather than assigned automatically to the Kārkoṭa dynasty. Its graceful modelling and intricate ornamentation invite comparison with the broader sculptural traditions of the Indian subcontinent, while its provenance and stylistic characteristics require careful scholarly assessment.

 The cultural context also deserves attention. Kashmir’s religious life included elaborate temple traditions, artistic patronage and dance. Kalhana’s Rājataraṅgiṇī, composed in the twelfth century, contains references to dancing women in religious and royal settings. Such evidence makes the question of temple dancing relevant, but it does not establish that this particular bronze represents a devadāsī. A properly researched label could explain the historical context, introduce the distinction between a human dancer and a celestial figure, and indicate what remains uncertain. The SPS Museum’s existing caption provides none of this essential information. It leaves the visitor with a date and a vague description, while the sculpture’s wider significance remains unexplored.

HOW THE LABEL SHOULD HAVE BEEN WRITTEN

A museum label need not be an elaborate essay. It should, however, be accurate, grammatically correct, historically informed and sufficiently interpretative to help visitors understand what they are seeing. Even a concise label could have identified the object as a ninth-century Kashmiri bronze, described its posture and ornamentation, and explained the possible identification as a dancer or celestial figure. It could also have situated the sculpture within the artistic traditions of early medieval Kashmir and acknowledged the limits of the available evidence. A more appropriate label might read:

 NARTAKI OR  APSARA ( CELESTIAL DANCER ),

NINTH CENTURY CE,

KASHMIR

PROCURED FROM ……

BRONZE

This should have been the minimum  additional note below the label 

This finely modelled bronze depicts a female figure with both arms raised, a gracefully flexed torso and elaborate jewellery. Her posture invites comparison with tribhanga, the classical Indian convention of threefold bodily flexion. The figure may represent a nartaki (female dancer) or an apsara (celestial dancer), although its precise identity requires further iconographic study. The sculpture reflects the refinement of Kashmir’s early medieval metalworking tradition, combining expressive movement with intricate ornamentation. Its ninth-century date places it within the Utpala period of Kashmir’s history.

This proposed label is not intended to settle every question about the object. Its purpose is to demonstrate the minimum standard of historical context, linguistic accuracy and interpretative care that a museum of this importance should aspire to provide.

 A MUSEUM MUST INTERPRET, NOT MERELY DISPLAY

The problem exposed by this example is larger than an unfortunate phrase on a display plate. It concerns the responsibility of a museum to communicate the significance of the objects entrusted to its care. A museum is not merely a warehouse for antiquities, nor is its responsibility discharged by placing an artefact in a showcase and attaching a few words to it. Labels are the first point of contact between an object and many visitors. They should illuminate its provenance, explain its artistic language, situate it in history and encourage further enquiry.

The label on this bronze does the opposite. Its defective English, perfunctory description and complete omission of the object’s Kashmiri artistic context diminish the educational value of a remarkable work. The sculpture’s precise identity may remain open to scholarly debate, but that is no justification for intellectual indifference. Uncertainty should invite careful explanation, not careless labelling.

 Preserved in the SPS Museum, this ninth-century bronze deserves to be studied not as an isolated decorative object but as part of Kashmir’s wider artistic and religious heritage, in which the human body could become a vehicle for grace, movement and sacred imagination. The museum owes this object, and the public who come to see it, a far more informed presentation. Kashmir’s civilisational treasures deserve scholarship, precision and respect—not casual captions that obscure the very history they should help reveal.

( Avtar Mota )

CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.

REBUILDING LOST TRUST: THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS MEANINGFUL DIALOGUE

                                                                    

REBUILDING LOST TRUST: THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS MEANINGFUL DIALOGUE IN KASHMIR

The historical resilience of Kashmir’s pluralistic ethos was sustained not merely by political institutions, but by an indigenous spiritual counterculture. While shortsighted political actors repeatedly instrumentalised religious and regional identities to consolidate power, dividing communities along lines of faith, ethnicity and ideology, the social fabric endured through the quiet yet transformative work of saints, faqirs and spiritual adepts. Their teachings challenged rigid boundaries between the self and the other, cultivating an ethic of coexistence that transcended sectarian affiliations.

Shrines often functioned as shared social spaces where disputes were resolved, alms distributed and devotional music resonated across communal boundaries. Itinerant faqirs, bound by vows of renunciation, moved between Hindu and Muslim households, embodying detachment from political loyalties and worldly power. This spiritual and cultural inheritance gave rise to what scholars have described as a shared sacred geography: shrines, proverbs, Shrukhs and Vakhs collectively remembered, revered and sustained across communities.

The insurgency and terrorism of the 1990s, however, inflicted a profound civilisational wound. Death and destruction, the indiscriminate killing of innocents, the selective targeting of minorities, the mass exodus of Kashmiri Pandits and the weaponisation of religious narratives precipitated a rupture of unprecedented magnitude. The centuries-old warp and weft of Kashmir’s social fabric were violently torn apart, displacing not only people but also the everyday practices of coexistence that had long helped communities transcend political and religious divisions. What was ruptured was not merely demography, but memory; not merely neighbourhoods, but an entire moral universe of shared meanings, rituals and belonging.

Rebuilding this inheritance requires more than appeals for peace or nostalgic references to Kashmir’s past. It demands purposeful dialogue, sustained conversation and a willingness to acknowledge suffering without competitive victimhood. Such engagement must neither romanticise the past nor evade historical wrongs. It must make room for difficult questions, truthful recollection and mutual respect. A common vocabulary does not require uniformity of belief or agreement on every historical interpretation. It requires the ability to listen, recognise another community’s pain and distinguish human beings from the political and ideological narratives imposed upon them. People must be able to speak without fear, listen without prejudice and acknowledge suffering without feeling compelled to diminish the suffering of others. The objective should not be to manufacture agreement, but to restore the human capacity to disagree without hatred and to remember without perpetuating hostility.

Ultimately, the restoration of trust is the primary ground upon which meaningful conversation and dialogue between the two communities can take place. Without trust, dialogue risks becoming a ritual of words, its promises undermined by suspicion and its outcomes limited by the absence of mutual confidence. Trust cannot be legislated into existence or restored through official declarations, political assurances and ceremonial gestures. The government may facilitate communication, provide security and create conditions conducive to reconciliation, but its role has inherent limitations. No government can compel one community to trust another, manufacture genuine remorse or decree the restoration of human relationships fractured by violence and displacement.

The burden of rebuilding trust cannot rest exclusively upon those who were driven away from their homes. Exiles who have endured decades of separation, uncertainty and loss cannot reasonably be expected to take the first step towards reconciliation while their experiences remain disputed, minimised or explained away. The majority community must demonstrate, through words and deeds, that the Pandits are not unwanted remnants of a vanished past but an integral part of Kashmir’s social and civilisational inheritance. Such goodwill would be reflected in the defence of their cultural and religious heritage, respect for their memories, acknowledgement of their dispossession and a sincere commitment to ensuring that any future return or rehabilitation is dignified, secure and sustainable.

The initiative must, therefore, arise from society itself. This is not a call for inherited guilt or collective condemnation. It is a call for collective moral responsibility. No community is homogeneous, and individuals must not be judged solely by their religious identity. Yet, where a historical rupture has separated communities, those who remain in the homeland have a particular opportunity to extend a hand to those who were forced to leave it. The sincerity of that gesture will be measured not by declarations of brotherhood, but by the willingness to acknowledge suffering, reject the justification of violence and create space for the restoration of trust.

The frequently invoked Jagmohan narrative, when employed as a comprehensive explanation of the Pandit exodus, cannot substitute for an honest examination of the insurgency, the targeted killings, the threats, the atmosphere of fear and the circumstances in which an entire community abandoned its ancestral homeland. Explanations that place the entire burden of responsibility elsewhere, without acknowledging the violence and insecurity experienced by the Pandits, can only deepen mistrust. Historical honesty requires the courage to confront uncomfortable facts rather than seek refuge in politically convenient interpretations.

Once trust begins to emerge, Kashmir’s shared literature, spiritual traditions, folklore and collective memories can help rebuild a language of human connection. The objective is not to recreate an idealised past, but to build a future in which historical truths can be spoken, suffering acknowledged, and communities brought together without the burden of denial or the fear of humiliation. Such a future cannot be built by asking the displaced to forget their experiences or by treating the past as an inconvenience to present-day harmony.

Peace cannot endure in the absence of dialogue, but dialogue cannot flourish in the absence of trust. And trust cannot be restored by political declarations alone. It must grow from historical honesty, moral courage and a willingness to recognise the pain of those who were uprooted. The government may provide the necessary conditions, but the decisive initiative must come from society, particularly through sincere and demonstrable goodwill towards the exiles.

Kashmiri Pandits are not strangers seeking acceptance in their ancestral homeland; they are an integral part of Kashmir’s civilisational inheritance. Their displacement severed more than a community’s connection with its homes. It damaged the shared moral world through which Kashmiris had understood one another. To restore that world, the first task is not to demand conversation, but to rebuild the trust that makes conversation possible. Only then can dialogue move beyond rhetoric, reconciliation acquire moral substance, and Kashmir’s pluralistic inheritance become a living reality rather than a frequently invoked memory.

(Avtar Mota)

CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.

MAHARAJA PRATAP SINGH AND THE RESTORATION OF KASHMIR’S TWO PRINCIPAL SHRINES

                                                                         

MAHARAJA PRATAP SINGH AND THE RESTORATION OF KASHMIR’S TWO PRINCIPAL SHRINES

 Maharaja Pratap Singh's contribution to preserving Kashmir’s religious and civilisational heritage deserves far greater recognition than it has generally received. His patronage of the restoration and reconstruction of Kashmir’s two principal Hindu shrines, Kheer Bhawani at Tula Mula and Sharika Devi at Hari Parbat, stands as a significant testament to his commitment to safeguarding the sacred inheritance of his kingdom. These were not ordinary building projects. Both shrines occupied an exalted place in the religious consciousness of Kashmiri Hindus, and both had suffered grievously from neglect, deterioration and destruction over the centuries. By supporting their restoration, Maharaja Pratap Singh helped recover the physical dignity of two sacred centres whose spiritual significance had endured despite the ravages of time.

 KHEER BHAWANI: RESTORING THE GRANDEUR OF AN ANCIENT SACRED CENTRE

 The Kheer Bhawani shrine at Tula Mula, dedicated to Goddess Ragnya Devi and revered for its sacred spring, has long occupied a central place in the spiritual life of Kashmiri Hindus. It is one of the most cherished centres of pilgrimage in Kashmir, inseparable from the religious traditions, collective memories and cultural identity of the Kashmiri Pandit community. Recognising the importance of this ancient seat of worship, Maharaja Pratap Singh patronised its substantial development and the construction of the present marble temple, generally dated to 1912. His intervention gave the shrine a more enduring architectural form and strengthened the setting in which an ancient religious tradition continued to flourish.

The importance of this initiative becomes even clearer when viewed in the context of the subsequent contribution of Maharaja Hari Singh, who made further additions to the development of the Tula Mula shrine. Together, the interventions of the two Dogra rulers strengthened the physical setting of a sacred institution that continues to command profound reverence among Kashmiri Hindus.

 SHARIKA DEVI: REBUILDING A SHRINE FROM THE WRECKAGE OF DESTRUCTION

 The shrine of Sharika Devi at Hari Parbat carries an equally profound, though more tragic, history. Goddess Sharika is revered as the presiding deity of Srinagar, and the sacred hill associated with her worship occupies a pre-eminent place in Kashmir’s religious geography. The shrine represents a spiritual continuity reaching deep into the region’s past.

 According to the historical tradition concerning the shrine, it suffered devastating destruction during the religious iconoclasm of the 15th century. The original structure was left in ruins, and what survived, according to this account, was principally the sacred Shila, the enduring focus of worship. The destruction of the architectural structure, however, did not extinguish the sanctity of the site. The sacred stone continued to bear witness to a religious tradition that had survived the loss of its material setting.

 It was against this historical background that the restoration undertaken under Maharaja Pratap Singh assumed particular significance. The rebuilding and renovation of the shrine helped restore dignity and substance to a sacred place that had suffered grievously. The intervention was not simply an act of construction; it was an affirmation of continuity. Where destruction had diminished the physical expression of an ancient faith, restoration helped recover its visible presence in the sacred landscape of Srinagar.

 Maharaja Pratap Singh’s interventions served a purpose larger than the construction or repair of religious buildings. They helped preserve the physical spaces through which generations of Kashmiris expressed their faith, transmitted their traditions and maintained their relationship with the sacred geography of their homeland. Maharaja Pratap Singh deserves to be remembered as a ruler who helped preserve an essential part of Kashmir’s civilisational inheritance for future generations.

 

(Avtar Mota )

CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.

REVIEW OF PASCAL BOYER’S BOOK ‘ RELIGION EXPLAINED’

                                                                             

REVIEW OF PASCAL BOYER’S BOOK ‘ RELIGION EXPLAINED’ : THE MIND BEHIND RELIGIOUS BELIEF

Pascal Boyer’s Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought, published in 2001, is an influential contribution to the cognitive study of religion. Drawing upon anthropology, cognitive science, evolutionary psychology and linguistics, Boyer attempts to answer a fundamental question: why do human beings across different societies and historical periods develop beliefs in gods, spirits, ancestors, invisible powers and life after death?

Boyer’s approach is important because he does not begin by asking whether religious beliefs are true or false. Instead, he asks how such beliefs originate in the human mind, why they appear in remarkably different cultures, and why they are transmitted from one generation to another. He seeks to understand religion as a natural phenomenon that can be investigated through the ordinary mechanisms of human thought.

The book’s principal argument is that religion does not necessarily require a special mental faculty, a unique spiritual instinct or an inexplicable departure from human reasoning. Religious ideas emerge, Boyer proposes, from the interaction of cognitive processes that already help human beings understand the physical world, interpret other people’s intentions, remember unusual events and make sense of their social relationships.

This is both the strength of his argument and the source of its limitations. Boyer offers a persuasive account of some of the mental processes that make religious ideas possible and memorable. Whether those processes can explain religion in its entirety is a much more difficult question.

Religion As a Product of Ordinary Mental Processes

One of Boyer’s most important propositions is that the human mind is naturally equipped to generate and entertain ideas that may eventually acquire religious significance. People do not need to abandon ordinary thinking to imagine supernatural beings. They employ familiar mental capacities in unfamiliar combinations.

Human beings instinctively look for causes behind events. They recognise agents, infer intentions, distinguish living things from inanimate objects and seek explanations for what they observe. These capacities are essential to survival. They help us recognise danger, anticipate behaviour and understand the world around us.

Yet the same capacities can also encourage us to attribute agency to things that cannot be observed directly. A person may imagine that a departed ancestor continues to watch over the family, that a deity knows the intentions of human beings, or that an invisible power has influenced an unexpected event. The underlying mental operations are not wholly different from those employed in ordinary social reasoning.

Boyer therefore challenges the simplistic proposition that religion exists merely because people cannot explain natural phenomena. Ignorance may sometimes encourage supernatural explanations, but it cannot by itself explain the extraordinary diversity, persistence and emotional force of religious beliefs.

Nor does he accept that religion is simply a psychological refuge created to overcome fear, or an institution deliberately invented to preserve social order. These explanations may illuminate particular aspects of religion, but Boyer argues that they fail to account adequately for the specific forms religious ideas assume.

His alternative is to investigate the mental mechanisms through which certain representations become plausible, memorable and transmissible.

Why Supernatural Ideas Are Memorable

A central feature of Boyer’s theory is that religious concepts frequently combine familiar properties with a limited number of violations of ordinary expectations. Such ideas are sufficiently unusual to attract attention, yet sufficiently familiar to remain understandable.

Consider the idea of a spirit that can pass through a wall but can also remember a promise, recognise a person and respond to human conduct. The spirit violates an ordinary expectation about physical objects, but retains familiar mental characteristics associated with human beings.

Boyer argues that concepts of this kind can be particularly memorable because they challenge one assumption without destroying the others through which we understand the world. An entirely incomprehensible object would be difficult to imagine and discuss. A familiar person, by contrast, would attract little attention. A supernatural agent occupies an intriguing middle ground.

This helps explain why religious traditions across cultures contain invisible beings, ancestors who remain involved in human affairs, deities who possess extraordinary knowledge and supernatural agents who intervene in everyday life.

The significance of this argument lies in its attempt to explain not merely why religious ideas arise, but why some ideas prove more successful than others in collective memory. Religious concepts are not transmitted simply because somebody invents them. They survive because they can be understood, recalled, communicated and incorporated into existing patterns of thought.

Boyer’s argument does not mean that every religion follows an identical psychological formula. Cultural traditions differ considerably. His claim is that certain recurring features of human cognition influence which religious representations are likely to emerge and persist.

Religion, Evolution And the Human Condition

Boyer places these cognitive processes within an evolutionary framework. Human beings developed mental capacities that enabled them to navigate a complicated physical and social environment. Those capacities did not necessarily evolve for the purpose of producing religion.

Religious thought, in his account, can arise as a consequence of the way these capacities interact. The ability to infer intentions, for instance, is indispensable in human relationships. The tendency to identify agents and seek causes is similarly useful. Yet such tendencies may also lead people to infer the presence of invisible agents or intentional forces.

Religion, therefore, need not be understood as a separate adaptation designed specifically to make people religious. It may emerge from cognitive capacities that serve other purposes.

This is an important distinction. To explain the mental processes that make religious belief possible is not the same as demonstrating that religion itself evolved for a particular biological purpose. Boyer’s argument is strongest when it identifies recurring cognitive mechanisms and more debatable when an evolutionary explanation is treated as sufficient to account for the entire historical phenomenon.

His approach nevertheless encourages an interdisciplinary study of religion. It brings anthropology into conversation with psychology, linguistics and evolutionary biology, moving the discussion beyond explanations based exclusively on theology, social utility or philosophical speculation.

The Merits of Boyer’s Book

The first major merit of Religion Explained is its refusal to reduce religion to a single motive. Religion may provide consolation, establish social relationships, explain suffering or legitimise authority. Yet none of these functions, taken separately, explains why human beings develop particular conceptions of gods, spirits, ancestors and the afterlife.

Boyer replaces these broad generalisations with a more detailed investigation of how religious ideas are formed and transmitted. This makes his argument intellectually stimulating even for readers who disagree with his conclusions.

The second merit is his comparative approach. By drawing upon diverse cultural traditions, he demonstrates that religious thought cannot be understood exclusively through the experience of Christianity or any other single organised religion. Familiar beliefs may appear perfectly natural to their adherents, whereas unfamiliar beliefs elsewhere may seem extraordinary. Comparative anthropology challenges this double standard and encourages a more consistent examination of human religious behaviour.

Thirdly, Boyer helps distinguish the psychological origins of belief from the truth of its object. Understanding why somebody believes in an invisible being does not, by itself, establish whether that being exists. Similarly, explaining the mental conditions that make an idea plausible does not automatically disprove it.

This distinction is essential to intellectual honesty. A cognitive explanation of religious belief may challenge the assumption that belief requires supernatural intervention in the mind, but it cannot settle every metaphysical question concerning the existence of God or the nature of consciousness.

Fourthly, the book invites readers to examine their own assumptions. Religious beliefs may feel self evident to those who inherit them, just as the beliefs of another community may appear irrational. Boyer asks us to consider how much of what seems self evident is shaped by ordinary mental processes and cultural transmission.

Finally, his work is valuable because it makes religion a legitimate subject of scientific investigation without requiring the investigator either to defend faith or to ridicule it. The book’s ambition is considerable, and its explanatory framework remains an important contribution to the cognitive study of religion.

The Shortcomings of Boyer’s Explanation

The principal weakness of the book lies in the gap between its ambitious title and the scope of its explanation. Boyer offers an account of the cognitive mechanisms involved in religious thought. Religion, however, is much more than a collection of mental representations.

It includes ritual, music, architecture, sacred landscapes, pilgrimage, moral obligations, institutions, communal memory, philosophical speculation and experiences that believers interpret as transformative or sacred. These dimensions cannot all be explained simply by showing why certain supernatural concepts are memorable.

A second limitation concerns lived religious experience. A person who participates in a ritual may experience grief, gratitude, surrender, wonder or a profound sense of connection with something greater than the individual self. A cognitive account may illuminate the mental processes involved, but it does not necessarily capture the subjective significance of that experience.

To explain the processes associated with an experience is not necessarily to explain the experience in its entirety. The distinction is particularly important when considering meditation, contemplative practice and mystical traditions that place less emphasis on belief in supernatural agents than on disciplined attention, self inquiry or the transformation of consciousness.

A third shortcoming is the relative difficulty of explaining religious institutions and historical change through cognition alone. Religious traditions are shaped by political authority, economic circumstances, social conflict, literary transmission, conquest, patronage and the interpretation of inherited texts. These forces determine which ideas are promoted, which practices are preserved and which beliefs become orthodox.

Cognitive mechanisms may help explain why some representations spread more readily than others, but they do not independently explain why a particular religious institution acquires authority or why one interpretation triumphs over its rivals.

There is also a methodological caution. Demonstrating that a mental mechanism could produce a particular religious belief does not prove that the mechanism was the actual historical cause of that belief. A plausible explanation must be distinguished from an established historical account. The evolutionary framework is useful, but individual explanations still require evidence.

Finally, Boyer’s naturalistic approach does not fully resolve the philosophical question of whether the existence of a cognitive explanation has any bearing on the truth of religious claims. Explaining individual beliefs does not necessarily amount to explaining religion as a collective and historical phenomenon.

These shortcomings do not invalidate Boyer’s contribution. They indicate that his theory should be regarded as one explanatory approach rather than a comprehensive account of religion.

Does Explaining Religion Diminish Its Significance?

The most important question raised by Boyer’s book is whether explaining the origins of religious belief diminishes its significance.

The answer depends on what is meant by significance. If religion is understood exclusively as a collection of supernatural propositions, then a cognitive explanation may substantially alter how those propositions are understood. If religion is also understood as a historical inheritance, a moral vocabulary, an artistic tradition, a communal bond or a discipline of inner transformation, the explanation remains incomplete.

A poem can be examined through the psychology of its author, the structure of its language and the processes through which it affects the reader. Yet these explanations do not exhaust its literary meaning. Similarly, explaining the cognitive foundations of religious thought does not automatically exhaust the meanings people discover in religious texts, symbols and practices.

The same caution applies to atheism. Identifying the psychological mechanisms through which people become religious does not establish that religious belief is irrational in every instance. Equally, the emotional depth or cultural antiquity of a belief does not establish its truth. Both questions require independent examination.

Boyer’s work is most useful when it encourages us to separate these questions rather than collapse them into a single verdict.

Conclusion 

Pascal Boyer’s Religion Explained is an ambitious and stimulating attempt to understand religious thought through the workings of the human mind. Its greatest contribution is the argument that supernatural beliefs need not originate in a mysterious faculty reserved for religion. They can emerge through ordinary cognitive processes that shape human understanding, memory and social interaction.

Its weakness is that an explanation of the mental mechanisms behind religious representations cannot, by itself, account for the full complexity of religious history, ritual, philosophy, institutional power and lived experience.

The book is therefore more convincing as an explanation of why certain religious ideas arise and endure than as a complete explanation of religion itself.

Boyer invites us to examine religion without assuming its supernatural truth, but intellectual rigour also requires us not to assume that a naturalistic explanation has disproved that truth. The origin of a belief, the reasons for its persistence and the validity of what it asserts are distinct questions.

Ultimately, the value of Religion Explained lies not in closing the debate about religion but in making it more precise. It reminds us that understanding why human beings believe something is an essential part of understanding religion, even if it is not the final word on what religion means.

(Avtar Mota)

CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.

WHEN A MAHARAJA DONATES HIS SUMMER PALACE TO STORE KASHMIR’S SCATTERED CIVILISATIONAL HERITAGE

                                          

                 ( Photo: Maharaja Pratap Singh )

WHEN A MAHARAJA DONATES HIS SUMMER PALACE TO STORE KASHMIR’S SCATTERED CIVILISATIONAL HERITAGE 

The progressive Dogra rulers of Jammu and Kashmir deserve recognition for their contribution to the preservation of Kashmir’s civilisational heritage and the development of modern institutions. Maharaja Ranbir Singh, Maharaja Pratap Singh and Maharaja Hari Singh promoted education, strengthened judicial administration, expanded healthcare, improved roads and communications, and encouraged scholarship, printing and public works. Their vision extended beyond governance and infrastructure to the protection of the region’s historical inheritance. At a time when the remains of  temple ruins  and Buddhist viharas, together with sculptures, bronzes, terracotta objects and other antiquities, lay scattered across Kashmir, their collection and preservation acquired particular significance. Maharaja Pratap Singh’s decision to build a museum and provide his own summer palace at Lal Mandi, Srinagar, for the establishment of the Sri Pratap Singh Museum gave these precious remnants a common home. 

The SPS Museum ranks amongst the earliest museums established in India. The proposal for its establishment was made in 1889, when a memorandum was submitted to Maharaja Pratap Singh by his younger brother, Raja Amar Singh, and a European scholar, Captain S. H. Godmerry, suggesting the creation of a museum at Srinagar to house antiquities from Jammu, Kashmir, Baltistan and Gilgit.

 In the summer of 1892, Aurel Stein and Pandit Govind Kaul conducted an antiquarian tour across Kashmir and collected sculptures and rock carvings for the museum.  The major addition came in 1913, after the reorganisation of the Archaeological Department under Rai Bahadur Daya Ram Sahni, when antiquities excavated at Panderenthan, Parihaspora and Avantipura were added to the museum.

This initiative reflected an appreciation of history and art, helping safeguard Kashmir’s material heritage for scholarly study, public understanding and future generations.

( Avtar Mota )

CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.

WHY THE SPS MUSEUM NEEDS DR PRATAPADITYA PAL OR AN EQUALLY QUALIFIED SCHOLAR ?

KASHMIR’S NEGLECTED ARTISTIC HERITAGE: WHY THE SPS MUSEUM NEEDS DR PRATAPADITYA PAL OR AN EQUALLY QUALIFIED SCHOLAR 

                                                                  

                         ( Dr Pratipaditya Pal )

The progressive Dogra rulers of Jammu and Kashmir, particularly Maharaja Ranbir Singh, Maharaja Pratap Singh and Maharaja Hari Singh, introduced a series of administrative, educational, medical and infrastructural measures that helped transform the princely State from a largely traditional society into a more organised modern polity. They established and expanded courts of law, hospitals, schools, technical institutions and colleges, while promoting roads, bridges, public buildings, communications and industrial enterprises. They encouraged the development of libraries, archives, printing presses and cultural institutions, thereby contributing to the preservation and dissemination of knowledge. The donation of a palace at Lal Mandi in Srinagar for the establishment of the Sri Pratap Singh Museum (SPS Museum) was another significant expression of this public patronage. It reflected an understanding that the State's artistic and archaeological heritage deserved an institution where its treasures could be preserved, studied and displayed for posterity. Their contribution extended beyond buildings and public works. Under Maharaja Ranbir Singh, the State strengthened its judicial administration, supported traditional scholarship, encouraged the study of Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic, and established institutions for the preservation and transmission of classical learning. The Ranbir Printing Press, established in the nineteenth century, helped advance printing and official publication, while the development of the State Gazette strengthened administrative communication.

During Maharaja Pratap Singh’s reign, the expansion of road networks, including the Jhelum Valley Road and the Banihal Cart Road, improved communications with the outside world. Railway connectivity through Jammu and Sialkot, the growth of the silk industry, improvements in urban sanitation and the expansion of medical facilities marked important developments. The establishment of Shri Pratap College in Srinagar in 1905 and Prince of Wales College in Jammu in 1906 gave higher education a firmer institutional foundation. Maharaja Hari Singh continued the process of institutional reform. His measures included compulsory primary education, the opening of State temples to historically excluded communities in 1932, the establishment of the Praja Sabha in 1934 and the introduction of the Constitution Act in 1939. The State Subject notifications of 1927 also sought to regulate access to government employment and immovable property. These measures were significant, although the extent of their implementation and the limits of political representation must be considered in their historical context.

The Dogra legacy also included initiatives in irrigation, agriculture, horticulture, electricity generation, public health and the development of administrative records. The growth of telegraph and postal communications, the expansion of government departments and the development of public institutions brought distant parts of the State into closer administrative contact. Progress was uneven, and many people continued to face poverty, educational deprivation and restrictions on political participation. Nevertheless, the institutional changes of this period helped shape the foundations of modern administration in Jammu and Kashmir.

The SPS Museum ranks amongst the earliest museums established in India. The proposal for its establishment was made in 1889, when a memorandum was submitted to Maharaja Pratap Singh by his younger brother, Raja Amar Singh, and a European scholar, Captain S. H. Godmerry, suggesting the creation of a museum at Srinagar to house antiquities from Jammu, Kashmir, Baltistan and Gilgit. The Maharaja accepted the proposal and allotted his summer guest house at Lal Mandi, on the left bank of the Jhelum, for the purpose. The establishment was supervised by Sir John Marshall, Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India. The first President was the State Accountant General, Mr Blerjee, who prepared the first catalogue of coins. The museum opened to the public in 1898, with its initial collection drawn from the palace Toshkhana:  shawls, arms and armour, and decorative household items.

The first nucleus of stone sculptures came later. In the summer of 1892, Aurel Stein and Pandit Govind Kaul conducted an antiquarian tour across Kashmir and collected sculptures and rock carvings. The major addition came in 1913, after the reorganisation of the Archaeological Department under Rai Bahadur Daya Ram Sahni, when antiquities excavated at Panderenthan, Parihaspora and Avantipura were added.

Today, the museum holds over 80,000 objects, including stone sculptures of Hindu deities such as Vishnu, Shiva, Ardhanarishvara and the eighth-century Durga from Tengpora repatriated from Germany in 2015, along with Buddhist images of Buddha and Tara and Jain Tirthankaras, a notable collection of Kashmiri bronzes from the eighth to twelfth centuries, terracottas and stucco from Burzahom, Harwan and Semthan, more than 70,000 coins ranging from punch-marked and Kushana to Sultanate and Dogra issues, Persian and Sanskrit manuscripts such as the seventeenth-century Qur'an bearing Aurangzeb's seal, Basohli and Kangra miniatures, Jamawar, Kani Tosa and Pashmina shawls, and arms and armour from the Toshkhana.

The museum's history has also had a darker dimension: loss by theft. The first reported theft took place in 1917, when sixty-eight objects, including jamawars and Pashmina robes, were stolen. In 1973, six antiquities- five bronzes and one wooden image, including Standing Buddha, Tara, a Jain figure and Ardhanarishvara disappeared.  In 2003, the seventeenth-century Qur'an manuscript bearing  Aurangzeb's seal went missing.  In all, about twenty-eight rare objects and eighty-four coins have been reported missing, and most remain untraceable.

Poor And Perfunctory Labelling and Cataloguing 

The poor aspect of the presentation of Kashmir’s extraordinary artistic heritage in the newly created premises of the Shri Pratap Singh (SPS) Museum, Srinagar, is the inadequate cataloguing, identification and labelling of its priceless treasures. The museum houses an exceptional collection of stone sculptures, bronzes, architectural fragments and other antiquities that bear witness to centuries of artistic excellence, religious imagination and intellectual achievement. Yet the information accompanying many objects does not adequately communicate their historical context, iconographic significance, artistic merit or place in the wider history of Indian and Himalayan art.

A visitor may stand before a magnificent sculpture of Shiva, Vishnu, Buddha or a goddess and leave knowing little more than the deity's name and an approximate date. What distinguishes the sculpture? Which attributes establish its identification? What does its workmanship reveal about the artistic traditions of ancient Kashmir? How does it compare with similar works preserved elsewhere? These are questions that a serious museum must help visitors answer.

Poor labelling is not a minor curatorial deficiency. It diminishes the educational value of the collection, deprives students and researchers of useful information, and prevents ordinary visitors from appreciating the sophistication of Kashmir's artistic inheritance. Inadequate cataloguing can also perpetuate mistaken identifications, obscure an object's provenance and complicate future conservation or research. A museum may possess extraordinary antiquities yet fail to communicate their importance to the public. The irony is painful: the treasures survive, but much of their story remains untold.

The devastating floods of September 2014 added to the difficulties faced by the SPS Museum, damaging cultural property and disrupting conservation work. Contemporary reporting documented the damage and the challenges surrounding the restoration and reopening of the institution. In the aftermath, the presentation of the collection appears, in the author's assessment, to have proceeded without the comprehensive scholarly documentation and interpretation that such a remarkable institution requires. Earlier scholars and specialists, including J. L. Bhan and others who worked on Kashmir's antiquities, had made valuable contributions to their identification and documentation. Their efforts deserve recognition. It is difficult not to wonder whether some of that painstaking work was lost, dispersed or rendered inaccessible during the disruption caused by the floods and the subsequent shifting and reorganisation of the collections.

The impression conveyed by parts of the present display is that the museum's physical reopening and its scholarly preparation have not advanced together. Labels that offer only perfunctory descriptions cannot do justice to objects of such historical importance. If a museum opens its doors without adequately explaining its collection, the public gains access to the objects but not necessarily to the knowledge that gives them meaning. The SPS Museum must therefore undertake a systematic review of its collection records, identifications, dates, provenance and display labels. Earlier documentation should be recovered wherever possible, questionable identifications reassessed, and the findings of established scholarship incorporated into a reliable catalogue.

A museum is not simply a building in which antiquities are displayed behind glass. It is an institution that establishes what an object is, explains how its identity has been determined, records what is known about its history and communicates why it matters. Kashmir deserves an SPS Museum that fulfils all these responsibilities.

Dr Pratapaditya Pal, John Siudmak, Benoy K. Behl and Other Scholars: The Expertise Kashmir Needs

The question of scholarly intervention brings us to Dr Pratapaditya Pal, one of the internationally recognised scholars of Indian and Himalayan art. Born in Bengal in 1935, Pal studied ancient Indian history and culture at the University of Calcutta before pursuing doctoral research at Calcutta and Cambridge. His professional career included curatorial responsibilities at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, as well as work with the Art Institute of Chicago. He served as general editor of Marg, the influential journal of Indian art and culture, from 1993 to 2012, and received the Padma Shri in 2009.

Pal's book ‘Bronzes of Kashmir’, published in 1975, is directly relevant to the study of Kashmiri metal sculpture. His later volume ‘The Arts of Kashmir’, published in 2007, presents a wider view of the region's artistic heritage, including sculpture, architecture, painting, calligraphy and decorative arts. These works demonstrate the importance of examining Kashmir's antiquities as products of a sophisticated artistic civilisation rather than as isolated religious images. His scholarship is particularly relevant to the identification of bronzes, the interpretation of iconography, comparative stylistic analysis and the relationship between Kashmiri art and wider Indian and Himalayan traditions. His international museum experience also makes his perspective valuable in considering how collections should be documented, researched and presented to the public.  Dr Pal has written over 70 books on Asian art, whose titles include Art of the Himalayas: Treasures from Nepal and Tibet (1992) and The Peaceful Liberators: Jain Art from India (1994).

Another scholar deserving serious consideration is John Siudmak, whose substantial study ‘The Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Ancient Kashmir and Its Influences (2013)’ examines ancient Kashmiri sculpture, drawing extensively on material preserved in the SPS Museum and at sites throughout Kashmir. His research is particularly pertinent to the museum's stone sculptures and their stylistic and iconographic relationships with other artistic traditions.

Benoy K. Behl, the Indian art historian, photographer and documentary filmmaker, has undertaken extensive work on Buddhist art, ancient murals, sculpture and the wider artistic heritage of India and Asia. His photographic documentation and interpretation of historic art offer a valuable perspective on the recording and public presentation of cultural heritage. His expertise could complement the work of scholars specialising more narrowly in Kashmiri sculpture and bronzes. Other specialists whose relevant expertise could be considered include Robert Linrothe, known for research on Buddhist art and Himalayan visual culture; Christian Luczanits, whose scholarship focuses on Himalayan Buddhist art and sculpture; and Mallica Kumbera Landrus, whose museum-curatorial experience encompasses Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian art.

These scholars do not have identical specialisations, nor should they be treated as interchangeable for every task. Their respective qualifications, nevertheless, together represent areas of scholarship that could contribute to a serious programme of research, cataloguing, conservation and interpretation.

The idea is not to confer an honorary title or invite a distinguished scholar for a ceremonial visit. It is to seek practical assistance in establishing a dependable scholarly record of the museum's collections. Such work should include detailed catalogue entries, accurate identifications, appropriate dating, photographic documentation, provenance research, references to published scholarship and informative display labels. Where evidence is incomplete, uncertainty should be acknowledged rather than concealed behind an apparently definitive description. A collaborative initiative would allow the museum to benefit from different areas of expertise while ensuring that its work remains grounded in the specific character of Kashmir's artistic heritage.

From Repository to Institution of Learning: A Call for Action

                                                                         

 

 

        ( Precious and exquisite three-faced Shiva from Kashmir )

                                                                      

          ( A rare  Goddess Kali stone image from Kashmir )

   ( Above: Very casual labelling and cataloguing at SPS Museum, Srinagar. Photos by the author, 2024)

The importance of specialist knowledge is illustrated by the recovery of a tenth-century sculpture of Goddess Durga as Mahishasuramardini, stolen in 1990 from a temple at Tengpora in Pulwama district and subsequently identified in Germany's Linden Museum in Stuttgart. The sculpture was formally handed back to India by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October 2015. Pal's recognition of the sculpture and New Jersey-based Rakesh Kaul's efforts helped advance the recovery effort, alongside the efforts of the Indian and German authorities. This episode demonstrates that art-historical expertise can have consequences beyond academic research. Correct identification and sound documentation may help establish an object's cultural origin, support provenance investigations and contribute to the recovery of cultural property. The episode was a collective achievement, but it illustrates why specialist knowledge matters.

The SPS Museum should accordingly begin with an audit of its existing catalogues, labels and archival records. Earlier documentation, including the work of Prof.J.L. Bhan and other specialists, should be traced and reconciled with present records. Objects requiring reassessment should be identified, and qualified experts should be invited to review the relevant collections. The resulting catalogue should be preserved in a durable digital format and made accessible to researchers, students and the public.

                                                                    

                                                 

                                                                                      

                             

                                      (Detailed label of Goddess Sharda at the MET Museum, New York. Photo by the author: 2019)

                                                    (Detailed label of  Meditating Buddha inside the Chicago Museum. Photo by the author: Sep. 2026)

The museum must also improve the way it communicates with visitors. A label should explain more than an object's name. It should briefly describe the features supporting its identification, indicate what is known about its date and origin, highlight distinctive artistic characteristics and explain its historical significance. If there is a bronze sculpture of a Nartaki, it needs to be clarified when and how this tradition arrived in Kashmir.  Was there a Devdasi culture or temple dancers in Kashmir? The museum can't label it simply as A Dancing female, which is otherwise understood even with a casual look at the sculpture. Comparative photographs, well-designed displays and digital resources could further enhance the experience.

Such work requires institutional planning, adequate resources and sustained cooperation between museum authorities, conservators, archivists and scholars. It should not depend on a single exhibition or a one-time intervention. Cataloguing and interpretation are continuing responsibilities, and new research should be incorporated as knowledge develops. Kashmir's artistic heritage is not a peripheral chapter in the history of the Indian subcontinent. Its sculptures, bronzes, architectural remains, paintings and decorative arts testify to centuries of artistic achievement and intellectual exchange. They deserve the same seriousness of scholarly attention that leading museums elsewhere devote to their most important collections.

The purpose must be to transform the museum from a repository of priceless antiquities into a living institution of learning, research and public understanding. Its treasures already exist. What is urgently needed is the scholarly care to let them speak with clarity and authority to future generations.

 

(Avtar Mota)

 

CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.

Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.